Teaching moments

I was pretty excited in February when I was asked to teach a group of 6-12 year old boys the fundamentals of disc golf. I started each lesson with two basic rules: Listen (follow directions) and be safe. They were rules one and one-a. I told the boys that if they were being unsafe they would lose their discs for at least 5 minutes. The first major safety rule was stay behind the first disc so you can't be hit.

Today on the course, one of the boys from the group spotted me and rode over to ask how I was playing. As we were talking about the day one of the guys in my playing group threw a blind shot out of the woods. The disc turned over early and hit another player in our group who had gone forward to find his disc. The disc caught him just above the left eye. I was impressed when the guy bounced right up and let everyone know he was okay, but I could see that his head was about to start bleeding. As the blood began to flow down his face and onto his shirt I took a moment to turn to the boy from my class and ask him if he remembered the first rule I taught him. He nodded and told me not to be in front of the person who was throwing.

I felt bad for the guy who got hit, but it was an awesome reinforcer for a very young new discer.

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This sounds like an awesome program Chris. I am hoping to get the youth involved in my area sometime very soon. ( I had to get the adults engaged first ) I will definitely use your two rules to help get me started. Thanks for the post.

Karma struck me 3 hours after my comment. I was playing yesterday with some friends and threw a blind thumber over some hedges and smacked my friend in the ribs. Fortunately he was ok, just a nice bruise on his lower back. Guess seeing someone get hit isn't as funny as I thought...

I would've given the tosser five bucks. It's a standing offer of mine. Mostly it's a joke about how crowded Morley is and how there's almost always someone in or near your line. I almost had to give it up yesterday during Friday night doubles when a player in my group hacked a drive directly into another group on a different hole. Fortunately, the victim got his arms in front of his face quickly enough to avoid injury. It left a mark, but no blood so i kept my five bucks.

Every year I take my wife's third grade class of 20-26 students disc golfing and start the same way you do. These are always first timers, so not too much velocity involved most of the time, but somebody always walks in front of a player yet to throw. Usually one of the kids gets tagged in the first three holes and the lesson is reinforced.